Friday, October 14, 2005

Don't need no education...


I've managed to avoid talking about the teacher's strike (CBC, CTV) for a whole week. People who know me well already know whose side I'm on. I was a student in the public school system when Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberal Party were first elected in and I got to witness firsthand the cuts that he made to our education system.

From the beginning this government has shown that it is not willing to negotiate in good faith with its employees. That's nothing new, and the current situation where 42,000 teachers and 600,000 children are out of school in beautiful British Columbia is yet another example of this. None of this surprises me in the least.

But here's something that does:

The Honourable Madam Justice Brown of the BC Supreme Court decided yesterday that the teacher's union was not allowed to use its resources to pay teachers strike pay or to allow them to communicate with each other.

I am puzzled. Does it not say in section 2 of our Constitution that we each have the fundamental freedom to communicate with each other, assemble peacefully and associate with whomever we want to? Am I somehow reading the Constitution wrong? Does it not apply to teachers as well as normal people?

I don't think I understand.

A guy arrived here in the middle of the night to ask if he could park his car in front of my house. He had apparently had way too much to drink and had decided to walk the rest of the way home. He then walked off in the opposite direction of the way his car was pointing. In retrospect, everything about the event was kind of bizarre. His car isn't there anymore.

Recommended reading:
The history of ARPANET because I need to study for my midterm, and
Tony Pierce because he's awesome and I completely didn't expect him to link me yesterday.

Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow.